Dear Friends and Family,
I can't believe it has been 3 months since i left for my mission!! It has gone by so fast! Today we find out Transfer news so every missionary finds out if they move or stay or get a new companion or not! I really hope i get to stay in Prince George with Sister Goldthorpe! We have gotten so close and I can't believe we have only known each other for 6 weeks! So crazy! I will definitely let you all know where i end up! This week was a lot of fun and has been crazy! It has also been so cold and rainy here too! I swear my hands were going to fall off yesterday!
Last Tuesday we did service for one of our investigators that got a hip replacement, Anita. We weeded her garden and then she wanted us to pick apples. We couldnt really reach them so both Sister Goldthorpe and I had to climb the 2 trees and get them. Then she came out with this contraption that she made. It was a bamboo stick with a dollar store laundry bag connected to it. So you poke the apples with the end of the stick then they just fall into the bag! Coolest contraption ever!
We have been able to find some amazing people this past week even though i swear everyone was gone trying to enjoy there last bit of summer before school starts, even though no one knows when school starts because all of the teachers are on strike. We found a new investigator Kayla. She is super nice and has 3 kids. She has had a crazy past full of drugs but was able to overcome her addiction through turning to God. Now we are teaching her. We have only met with her twice but she is still great and i hope she still wants to meet with us. Then we found a Sehk woman who wants to learn from us, Ranjeet. She is super nice and has been searching for the truth and some answers we haven't been able to see her too much because she is on call for work but she is awesome. We went back to see some potentials and not very many of them are interested but we were able to set up an appointment with this young couple Dallas and Chelsea who are super nice and are excited to learn so we get to go see them this tomorrow!
We went on exchanges this past week on Friday and Sister Hanks and I had a great time! It was so crazy but so fun! We went to a few members. One member, Trudy Ray has like 5 cats and i swear i was eating cat hair the whole time i was there. It smelled so bad. We asked if we could do anything for her and she asked if we could vacuum her rug except her vacuum doesn't really work so there was cat hair flying everywhere! So gross! Then we went to a recent converts apartment, Linda. Linda's apartment was even worse she had clothes and movies and rotten food everywhere. We walked in and there were flies everywhere. There is a possibility that we ate some. Then later that night we went and tried a member who gave us carrots and he told us to try them and so we ate some dirt. We tried our appointments but no one was home so we decided to try this less active. She lives in the Hood where drunk and high people live and there are people just passed out on the street. It was probably not the smartest idea but we went there at about 8:30 at night so it was pitch black. We had some cookies in our hands to give to her and this crazy old man answers the door. We ran away as soon as we realized she didn't live there then came home! It was an interesting experience.
Yesterday we were tracting and i didn't use the washroom like i should have before i left so i had to go to the washroom so bad!!! Every house we knocked, we would try and see if they were nice and then ask if i could use their washroom but no one was nice enough or just slammed the door on us. But thankfully we finally asked this nice lady and she let us right in and let me use the washroom! It was super funny and was kind of awkward asking random people if we could use the washroom!
Sadly a lot of our appointments have fell through this past week with everyone leaving and coming plus our members left to go on their temple trip so there wasn't very many people to call to come with us. But other than that we had a pretty good week and are excited for a fresh week to start.
The other sisters in our area and us came up with an idea to put up a member missionary supply table in the church to help our ward get excited about missionary work and help us. Our ward is starting to get an idea of how important missionary work is but it still isn't enough we have been trying to get to know the members but no one has been home lately so hopefully with summer starting to end everyone will come home and stay! If you have any ideas on how to get the members excited about missionary work please share! We have been trying so hard but none of the ideas we have had have worked.
Just to let you all know family, I eat bananas and tuna fish sandwiches now and love them! I swear i will now eat almost anything since we don't have much money for food! But I am a changed woman the only thing i still won't eat is peas! I can't do it! Other than that i am pretty open to whatever!
I have been learning a lot from my studies and just being out and talking to people! Today i learned more about the Atonement and how grateful i am that Jesus Christ was able to perform such a selfless sacrifice for me and everyone here on the earth now, in the past and in the future! I don't think i appreciated how important the Atonement is in each persons life and how amazing it feels to know that you can be forgiven for those mistakes you have made. Big or small, each of them have been felt by the Savior and each can and will be forgiven and take off our shoulders. I also read Elder Uchdorf's talk from conference, "Grateful in Any Circumstances." It is so important to always be grateful for the things we have and also the things we are going through. He says, "Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges." This is so true that as we are grateful for the things we go through that doesn't mean we are happy about it but we are able to push forward with faith and continue to march on. I am so grateful for the hardships and trials i have had in my life because they have made me the person i am and will help me in the future to become the person my Heavenly Father knows i can be and wants me to be.
I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!
Love,
Sister Heaton
I can't believe it has been 3 months since i left for my mission!! It has gone by so fast! Today we find out Transfer news so every missionary finds out if they move or stay or get a new companion or not! I really hope i get to stay in Prince George with Sister Goldthorpe! We have gotten so close and I can't believe we have only known each other for 6 weeks! So crazy! I will definitely let you all know where i end up! This week was a lot of fun and has been crazy! It has also been so cold and rainy here too! I swear my hands were going to fall off yesterday!
Last Tuesday we did service for one of our investigators that got a hip replacement, Anita. We weeded her garden and then she wanted us to pick apples. We couldnt really reach them so both Sister Goldthorpe and I had to climb the 2 trees and get them. Then she came out with this contraption that she made. It was a bamboo stick with a dollar store laundry bag connected to it. So you poke the apples with the end of the stick then they just fall into the bag! Coolest contraption ever!
We have been able to find some amazing people this past week even though i swear everyone was gone trying to enjoy there last bit of summer before school starts, even though no one knows when school starts because all of the teachers are on strike. We found a new investigator Kayla. She is super nice and has 3 kids. She has had a crazy past full of drugs but was able to overcome her addiction through turning to God. Now we are teaching her. We have only met with her twice but she is still great and i hope she still wants to meet with us. Then we found a Sehk woman who wants to learn from us, Ranjeet. She is super nice and has been searching for the truth and some answers we haven't been able to see her too much because she is on call for work but she is awesome. We went back to see some potentials and not very many of them are interested but we were able to set up an appointment with this young couple Dallas and Chelsea who are super nice and are excited to learn so we get to go see them this tomorrow!
We went on exchanges this past week on Friday and Sister Hanks and I had a great time! It was so crazy but so fun! We went to a few members. One member, Trudy Ray has like 5 cats and i swear i was eating cat hair the whole time i was there. It smelled so bad. We asked if we could do anything for her and she asked if we could vacuum her rug except her vacuum doesn't really work so there was cat hair flying everywhere! So gross! Then we went to a recent converts apartment, Linda. Linda's apartment was even worse she had clothes and movies and rotten food everywhere. We walked in and there were flies everywhere. There is a possibility that we ate some. Then later that night we went and tried a member who gave us carrots and he told us to try them and so we ate some dirt. We tried our appointments but no one was home so we decided to try this less active. She lives in the Hood where drunk and high people live and there are people just passed out on the street. It was probably not the smartest idea but we went there at about 8:30 at night so it was pitch black. We had some cookies in our hands to give to her and this crazy old man answers the door. We ran away as soon as we realized she didn't live there then came home! It was an interesting experience.
Yesterday we were tracting and i didn't use the washroom like i should have before i left so i had to go to the washroom so bad!!! Every house we knocked, we would try and see if they were nice and then ask if i could use their washroom but no one was nice enough or just slammed the door on us. But thankfully we finally asked this nice lady and she let us right in and let me use the washroom! It was super funny and was kind of awkward asking random people if we could use the washroom!
Sadly a lot of our appointments have fell through this past week with everyone leaving and coming plus our members left to go on their temple trip so there wasn't very many people to call to come with us. But other than that we had a pretty good week and are excited for a fresh week to start.
The other sisters in our area and us came up with an idea to put up a member missionary supply table in the church to help our ward get excited about missionary work and help us. Our ward is starting to get an idea of how important missionary work is but it still isn't enough we have been trying to get to know the members but no one has been home lately so hopefully with summer starting to end everyone will come home and stay! If you have any ideas on how to get the members excited about missionary work please share! We have been trying so hard but none of the ideas we have had have worked.
Just to let you all know family, I eat bananas and tuna fish sandwiches now and love them! I swear i will now eat almost anything since we don't have much money for food! But I am a changed woman the only thing i still won't eat is peas! I can't do it! Other than that i am pretty open to whatever!
I have been learning a lot from my studies and just being out and talking to people! Today i learned more about the Atonement and how grateful i am that Jesus Christ was able to perform such a selfless sacrifice for me and everyone here on the earth now, in the past and in the future! I don't think i appreciated how important the Atonement is in each persons life and how amazing it feels to know that you can be forgiven for those mistakes you have made. Big or small, each of them have been felt by the Savior and each can and will be forgiven and take off our shoulders. I also read Elder Uchdorf's talk from conference, "Grateful in Any Circumstances." It is so important to always be grateful for the things we have and also the things we are going through. He says, "Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges." This is so true that as we are grateful for the things we go through that doesn't mean we are happy about it but we are able to push forward with faith and continue to march on. I am so grateful for the hardships and trials i have had in my life because they have made me the person i am and will help me in the future to become the person my Heavenly Father knows i can be and wants me to be.
I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!
Love,
Sister Heaton